General Music Chat

I think that 90 dB is the perfect volume level.

Best examples of pro volume levels I recently heard were BOC, Red Hot Chili Peps, & Santana, over the last 15 years. The rest were just too loud.

Things HAVE gotten much better over the years, though. I remember seeing Deep Purple once, back in '73, & omg was it too loud! Likewise just about any other act back then. I've actually walked cuz the sound was so overpowering, before...at least to an area where I could think straight. Whitesnake made me wanna just walk out, though, & I would have if Tull wasn't the headliner.

My intent and one of my goals for this year is to obtain an good SPL meter and standardize our indoor volume as best I can.
It will help me in determining the mix levels without constantly creeping the volume beyond what I would consider reasonable.

In every rock band there is always this one guy who wants to be louder than everyone else.
He cranks up his volume, so he can be a guitar hero.
Then everyone else cranks up their volume just in order to hear themselves at all.
What ya have to do is rank on that one dude who thinks he needs to be 30% louder than the entire rest of the band combined . . .
And - to be fair . . .
Sometimes it just happens by accident, maybe because of the placement of the speakers or something - one guy can't hear himself, so he turns up. But then no one else in the band can hear themselves - all they can hear is the one guy who cranked his volume.
So - now he's happy - but everyone else is miserable - so they crank their volume . . .
. . . it can be an endless cycle.
In my band, instead of everyone turning up their volume - and deafening everyone around - we tell the loudest to cut back.
It's easier to get a good balanced sound by turning one guy down, - rather than turning 3 - 5 other people up . . . .

In every rock band there is always this one guy who wants to be louder than everyone else.
He cranks up his volume, so he can be a guitar hero.
Then everyone else cranks up their volume just in order to hear themselves at all.
What ya have to do is rank on that one dude who thinks he needs to be 30% louder than the entire rest of the band combined . . .
And - to be fair . . .
Sometimes it just happens by accident, maybe because of the placement of the speakers or something - one guy can't hear himself, so he turns up. But then no one else in the band can hear themselves - all they can hear is the one guy who cranked his volume.
So - now he's happy - but everyone else is miserable - so they crank their volume . . .
. . . it can be an endless cycle.
In my band, instead of everyone turning up their volume - and deafening everyone around - we tell the loudest to cut back.
It's easier to get a good balanced sound by turning one guy down, - rather than turning 3 - 5 other people up . . . .

I like this and what is real important is to have the guts to admit that someone is too loud. AND it is even more important that that person accepts this and just backs his sound down. Balance is numero uno.

I think it realy is an age thing.

When I was in my teens and early twenties I was known as one ofthe loudest gutarist in my area. I actually still have the amp I used in those days and occasionally get it out and play on it (OUTSIDE), it is and was loud.

ahhh youth ... balls to the wall ... play it loud to make up for the lack of ability

I think over time we become more particular about sound..

Maybe not so much the sound but the ability to make music instead of noise and knowledge that you can make it driving (groove) without being loud.

My band Aint Yo Mama was always a loud band, but about 3 yrs ago we made a conscious effort to keep the sound in the 100-105 db range, even used a meter for that purpose. We sound better, cleaner, hear the monitors better, insturments have much better clarity, have better dynamics.

It's called musical maturity rare to see someone young with it but it does happen.